Semantic subtyping for declarative data scripting language by calling a prover

ABSTRACT

An efficient, logical and expressive type system supports the combination of refinement types and type membership expressions, as well as a top type that encompasses all valid values as members. Various embodiments verify the validity of subtyping relationships by translating to first-order logic, and invoking a general-purpose theorem prover with the first-order logic as input. In contrast to treating formulas as types, types are translated into formulas of standard first-order logic. Moreover, to represent data structures of the programming language as first-order logic, universal and existential quantifiers of first-order logic, and function symbols in terms, are exploited. Data intensive applications can be generated, verified, and deployed with greater speed and scale.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The subject disclosure generally relates to testing the validity oftypes of declarative code based on an expressive, compact and flexibletype system for a declarative data scripting language, and moreparticularly, to a semantic subtyping system for testing the validity ofsubtyping relationships that invokes a prover based on transforms tofirst-order logic constructs.

BACKGROUND

By way of general background, scripting languages are programminglanguages that control software systems, applications and programs.Scripts are often treated as distinct from “programs,” which executeindependently from other applications. In addition, scripts can bedistinct from the “core code” of an application, which may be written ina different language. Scripts can be written by developers or otherprograms, in source formats or object formats, which range the gamut interms of human friendly or machine friendly, or neither. Whereaccessible to the end user, scripts enable the behavior of anapplication to be adapted to the user's needs. Scripts can also beinterpreted from source code or “semi-compiled” to bytecode, or anothermachine friendly format, which is interpreted. Scripting languages canalso be embedded in an application with which they are associated.

For further background, a type system defines how a programming languageclassifies values and expressions into types, how it can manipulatethose types and how they interact. A type identifies a value or set ofvalues as having a particular meaning or purpose, although some types,such as abstract types and function types, might not be represented asvalues in the executing program. Type systems vary significantly betweenlanguages, e.g., among other kinds of differences, type systems can varywith their compile-time syntactic and run-time operationalimplementations.

For an example of how types can be used, a compiler can use the statictype of a value to optimize storage and the choice of algorithms foroperations on the value. In many C compilers, for example, the nominallytyped “float” data type is represented in 32 bits in accordance with anaccepted norm for single-precision floating point numbers. C thus usesfloating-point-specific operations on those values, e.g., floating-pointaddition, multiplication, etc. In addition, the depth of typeconstraints and the manner of their evaluation can have an effect on thetyping of the language.

An efficient, logical and expressive type system is desirable to keeplanguage compact, but also highly expressive and logical so thatefficient and structurally compact data intensive applications can begenerated along with efficient storage representations. However, typesystems of conventional programming languages are not general enough orflexible enough for the complexities of massive scale data processingand consumption. In short, any complexity or lack of flexibility of atype system and associated inefficiency can magnify exponentially or outof proportion when large amounts of data are implicated. For the samereasons, the type checking processes that determine whether or not typeshave been validly specified in programming code have the samelimitations of the type systems to which they apply.

In this regard, the ability to express types richly and efficiently,given the diversity of data values in the computing universe, cansignificantly improve the resulting performance of data intensiveapplications and programs. A need thus remains for a programminglanguage with an improved type system, along with a way to check thattypes of the programming language are valid prior to execution witherrors. Accordingly, algorithms are desired for type-checking programsin a data scripting language with an expressive type system.

More specifically, the ability to determine the validity of subtyperelationships where a programming construct includes a statement that afirst type is a subtype of a second type is of particular help for atype system supporting type test and refinement if programs are to bestatically verified.

In this regard, a typechecking algorithm often needs to test whether onetype S is a subtype of another type T, meaning that any value of thesubtype S may be used in a place where the supertype T is expected. Aconventional approach is to define a set of syntactic rules for testingsubtyping between S and T, i.e., use a subtype algorithm based on thesyntax of types. However, this approach is problematic in the context ofrefinement types, because it is complicated to reflect refinementconstraints, which may include logical connectives, such as and, or,negation, and equations as syntactic rules.

One conventional system proposes using a theorem prover to implementsemantic subtyping. Such system uses the theorem prover for apropositional spatial logic whose logical connectives are: not, and,zero, composition, guarantee, location, placement, name equality, butwith no quantifiers and where the only terms are names. However, this isby no means standard logic, the particular algorithm presented does notscale well and is thus of limited use in practice. There are also someconventional typecheckers that make use of an automated theorem proverduring typechecking to check the constraints associated with refinementtypes, however, again such systems use conventional syntactic rules todetermine subtyping, as opposed to using semantic subtyping.

The above-described background information and deficiencies of currenttype systems and corresponding subtype checking of programming languagesare merely intended to provide a general overview of some of thebackground information and problems of conventional systems, and are notintended to be exhaustive. Other problems with conventional systems andcorresponding benefits of the various non-limiting embodiments describedherein may become further apparent upon review of the followingdescription.

SUMMARY

A simplified summary is provided herein to help enable a basic orgeneral understanding of various aspects of exemplary, non-limitingembodiments that follow in the more detailed description and theaccompanying drawings. This summary is not intended, however, as anextensive or exhaustive overview. Instead, the sole purpose of thissummary is to present some concepts related to some exemplarynon-limiting embodiments in a simplified form as a prelude to the moredetailed description of the various embodiments that follow.

Various embodiments verify the validity of subtyping programmingconstructs of a programming language having a type system supportingrefinement types and type test expressions. Validity of subtypingrelationship is tested by translating to first-order logic, and invokinga general-purpose theorem prover with the first-order logic as input. Incontrast to treating formulas as types, types are translated intoformulas of standard first-order logic. Moreover, to represent datastructures of the programming language as first-order logic, universaland existential quantifiers of first-order logic, and function symbolsin terms, are exploited. Translating the sub-typing expressions tostandard first-order logic enables efficient algorithms for validity,and hence data intensive applications can be generated, verified, anddeployed with greater speed and scale.

These and other embodiments are described in more detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various non-limiting embodiments are further described with reference tothe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a generalized subtypingrelationship among two types, a relationship that can be verified usingthe semantic subtyping and translation to first order logic describedherein

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a transformation to first order logicformula in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a declarative code interpretation moduleaccording to various embodiments for checking subtype relationships indeclarative code;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating some alternative embodiments forcommunicating with a prover regarding the first order logic constructs;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a first method of checking subtyperelationships in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 6 is another flow diagram of a method for checking subtyperelationships as set forth herein;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a compiling process chain for a declarativeprogramming language and related structures;

FIG. 8 is a first block diagram illustrating exemplary aspects of a typesystem in one or more embodiments described herein;

FIG. 9 is second block diagram illustrating exemplary aspects of a typesystem in one or more embodiments described herein;

FIG. 10 is third block diagram illustrating exemplary aspects of a typesystem in one or more embodiments described herein;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a type system capable ofintersections of two or more types;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a type system capable ofjoining, or performing a union operation of, two or more types;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a type system whose meaning isthe complement of the meaning of an empty type;

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for definingdeclarative code according to a declarative programming model comprisinga type system supporting type refinement and type membership inaccordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a computing system for executingdeclarative code according to a declarative programming model having asophisticated type system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for executingdeclarative code by at least one processor of a computing deviceaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 17 is an exemplary process chain for a declarative model packagedby an embodiment;

FIG. 18 is an illustration of a type system associated with arecord-oriented execution model;

FIG. 19 is a non-limiting illustration of a type system associated witha constraint-based execution model according to an embodiment;

FIG. 20 is an illustration of data storage according to an orderedexecution model;

FIG. 21 is a non-limiting illustration of data storage according to anorder-independent execution model;

FIG. 22 is a block diagram representing exemplary non-limiting networkedenvironments in which various embodiments described herein can beimplemented; and

FIG. 23 is a block diagram representing an exemplary non-limitingcomputing system or operating environment in which one or more aspectsof various embodiments described herein can be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

As discussed in the background, among other things, conventional typesystems have certain complexities and inflexibilities that limit theexpressiveness of the resulting programs and limit the efficiency ofresulting storage structures and algorithmic processing. Suchdeficiencies of conventional systems are especially felt when carriedout on a large scale, such as in connection with large scale datastorage and processing systems. In addition, when interacting with realworld data by programs on a data intensive basis, making sure that thetypes specified in the programs are valid, and thus will match to thetarget data stores, or certain subsets or columns of a data storewithout generating errors is beneficial. As a result, e.g., programshaving errors can be stopped before they disrupt the computing ecosystemin which they operate.

In this regard, “D” is a programming language developed by Microsoft, iswell suited to authoring data intensive programs. The D programminglanguage, more details about which can be found below, is a declarativeprogramming language that is well suited to compact and humanunderstandable representation and advantageously includes efficientconstructs for creating and modifying data intensive applications,independent of an underlying storage mechanism, whether flash storage, arelational database, RAM, external drive, network drive, etc. “D” isalso sometimes called the “M” programming language, although forconsistency, references to M are not used herein.

In various non-limiting embodiments described herein, on top of such anexpressive type system, a semantic subtyping algorithm is provided thatenables testing of the validity of subtyping relationships bytranslating the expressions to formulas of first order logic, andinvoking a prover with the formulas as input. In this regard, the outputof the prover can be used to test the validity of the correspondingsubtype relationships, ensuring valid typing of the code. It is notedthat the term “subtyping relationship” as used herein refers to whetherone type is related to another by the subtype relation.

In one non-limiting aspect, the type system supports the combination ofrefinement types and type membership expressions. The type system canalso include a top type that encompasses all valid values as members. Inthis regard, the type system of D supports a combination of uniquefeatures enabling a synergy of language expressiveness including, butnot limited to, the capability of expressing the union and/orintersection of two or more distinct types of a program. The type systemand corresponding semantic subtype checking as described herein allowsdata intensive applications to be statically verified using anexpressive type system including subtypes.

As mentioned, in one embodiment, a type system supports the combinationof a “top” type (written Any in D), a refinement type (where a type canbe qualified by an arbitrary Boolean expression) and the inclusion of atype test expression in the refinement expression language. For theavoidance of doubt, the D programming language is provided as thecontext for various embodiments set forth herein with respect to theabove-mentioned type system and corresponding type checking for adeclarative programming model and language. However, it can beappreciated that the various embodiments described herein can be appliedto any declarative programming languages having the same or similarcapabilities of D with respect to its programming constructs, typesystem and other defining characteristics.

Thus, for instance, any declarative language including a type systemsupporting typecasing or type membership expressions in refinement typesas set forth in one or more embodiments is contemplated herein, not justembodiments predicated on the D programming language. Moreover, while Dis a suitable source of exemplary pseudo-code and conceptualillustration as found herein, such examples are to be consideredrepresentative of concepts, and not limited to any particularities of D.

In various embodiments, an efficient, logical and expressive type systemand way to validate subtype relationships are provided for flexiblydefining and verifying types of a declarative programming language sothat efficient, valid and structurally compact data intensiveapplications can be generated. In one non-limiting aspect, the typesystem supports the combination of refinement types and type membershipexpressions. Combined with a top type that encompasses all valid valuesas members, among other non-limiting aspects, types and sub-types can beefficiently represented for a full range of types of data as may befound in large scale collections of real world data.

On top of the type system, to test the validity of subtypes, i.e., totest whether a first type is a subtype of a second type in aconstraint-based type system, a subtyping test translates types intoformulas of standard first-order logic, as opposed to treating formulasas types. The universal and existential quantifiers of first-order logicand function symbols in terms are both used to represent data structuresof the programming language according to semantic analysis. Oncetranslated, the algorithm relies on the standard semantics of standardfirst-order logic, and provers based on such logic to test validity ofthe equivalent first-order logic expressions. Due to the semanticsubtyping approach and efficient representation of, and ability toreduce, complex first-order logic expressions, the subtyping algorithmsand processes as described herein perform better than the conventionalsyntactical approaches and have greater applicability than those basedon a peculiar logic foundation as described in the background.

In standard logic parlance, various embodiments implement the following.For each type T, a formula F[T](x) is defined that holds if and only ifx is a value of type T. To check whether type S is a subtype of type T,the formula (∀x. F[S](x)

F[T](x)) is constructed, and a first-order solver is invoked todetermine whether the formula is valid, given a suitable backgroundtheory.

Invoking a general purpose prover for first-order logic has not beendone in this context, and the translation from declarative subtypingprogramming constructs to formula(e) represented in first-order logic isdescribed in more detail below. Accordingly, various embodimentsdescribed herein enable a check if one type is a subtype of anothertype. The subtyping check can be performed as a subroutine as an overalltype checking routine applied to all of the types of declarative codesubmitted to the checking component. In general, FIG. 1 illustrates atype S 100 that is a subtype of type T 110, a relationship representedby syntax S<:T, since each of the types of type S are also found in typeT.

In this regard, to figure out if a subtyping relationship is true, firstorder predicate logic is used to translate type expressions into logic,which various provers can analyze and help answer whether the subtypingrelationship holds. Accordingly, the subtyping problem is translated toformulae, then a set of tools can decide if the first order formulae arevalid. In one non-limiting implementation, a Z3 prover designed byMicrosoft is used, which is a Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT)prover, though any general purpose solver can be used where the solveris given first order predicate logic, and returns, affirmative,negative, or unknown. In this regard, rather than design a complex setof rules including complex algebraic simplification, among otherabstractions, into a set of syntactical rules, embodiments set forth indetail below translate the programming constructs to a differentformalism, i.e., first order logic, where the subtyping validity issolved. Accordingly, advantageously, various embodiments includetranslation to first order logic and semantic subtyping.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an implementation of the algorithm foranswering the subtyping question in the first order logic domain throughtransformation. At 200, a programming construct of a declarativeprogramming language is received having environment E, type S and typeT. At 210, the formula (B

[E])

(∀x.F[S](x)

F[T](x)) is constructed. The formula (B

[E])

(∀x. F[S](x)

F[T](x)) as constructed is then transmitted to the prover at 220. At230, the prover returns an answer of valid, invalid or unknown(unanswerable), which answer can be used by the type checker at 240 todetermine the validity of the statement that type S is a subtype of typeT. The formula can be sent together or piecemeal. If sent piecemeal, theanswer from the prover can be aggregated to provide the same answer asif the pieces were processed together. In addition, if the proverreturns an unknown, another prover can be used, or multiple provers canbe used in parallel in substitution of any embodiment only having oneprover to reinforce the validity of the subtyping validitydetermination. Additional, non-limiting details are presented below.

Semantic Subtyping with Type Test and Refinement

As discussed above, conventional type systems of programming languageshave not enabled type checking expressions in refinement type statementsas part of the associated type system. Accordingly, for such a system,various embodiments type check types found in programs constructedaccording the type system of the D programming language, or similar typesystem, which supports rich and expressive features. In variousembodiments, semantic subtyping is enabled for checking subtypes in adata scripting language.

FIG. 3 is a generalized block diagram of an embodiment illustrating anexemplary non-limiting mechanism for checking subtypes of a D programwith programming constructs 300. In this regard, an interpretive module310 performs a semantic analysis as part of a general type checkingprocess 320 that includes type checking subtypes. In this regard, forsubtype relationships, a translation occurs to formulae of first orderlogic 330 as described in detail below. As described, the first orderlogic formulae 330 are then passed to a prover, which then returns ananswer of valid, invalid, or unknown, which is then used to indicate thevalidity of the subtyping relationship being validated by the module310.

FIG. 4 takes FIG. 3 one step further by focusing on the idea that theprover 410 is separable from the module 400 that translates thesubtyping relationships to first order logic. In this regard, the logicinput 405 into first order logic prover 410 can be divided into pieces,and then the output 415 can be aggregated and evaluated together havingthe same effect as if all of the logic input 405 were input in whole, ortogether.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a first method of checking subtyperelationships in accordance with an embodiment. At 500, subtypingprogramming constructs of a declarative program are translated to firstorder logic formula constructs based on a semantic analysis for a givenenvironment. At 510, the first order logic formula constructs are inputto a general purpose prover. At 520, an answer (valid, invalid, orunknown) is received from a general purpose prover. Based on the answer,at 540, for each subtyping relationship, it is determined whether afirst type of the programming expression is a valid subtype of a secondtype.

FIG. 6 is another flow diagram of a method for checking subtyperelationships as set forth herein. At 600, a declarative program isreceived specified according to a type system that supports typing byrefinement and evaluation of type membership. At 610, the validity ofsubtyping relationships represented in the declarative program isdetermined by calling a subtyping validity check subroutine. At 620, thesubtyping relationships are translated to first order logic expressionsbased on a background theory defined for the type system. Lastly, at630, the validity of the first order logic expressions is checked basedon an analysis of the first order logic expressions.

As mentioned, various embodiments discussed herein determine whether atype S is a subtype of a type T, given an environment E, assigning typesto all the variables occurring in the types S and T.

More formally, let E range over typing environments, which areassociation lists x₁:T₁, . . . , x_(n):T_(n) that associate a type T_(i)with each variable x_(i) in scope, where the variables x_(i) arepairwise distinct. There are many concrete representations of thisabstraction.

A function T[e] is defined that takes as input an expression e of theprogramming language and yields a logical term T[e] that represents thesemantics of e. The detailed definition of this function ismathematically described below.

A function F[T](t) is also defined that takes as input a type T of theprogramming language and a logical term t, and yields a logical formulaF[T](t) that represents the semantics of T as a predicate on the term t.The detailed definition of this function is also mathematicallydescribed below.

Further, a function F[E] is defined that takes as input a typingenvironment E and yields a formula representing the semantics of theenvironment; if E=x₁:T₁, . . . ,x_(n):T_(n), then F[E] is the formulaF[T₁](x₁)

.

F[T_(n)](x_(n)).

A background theory, a formula B, can be assumed that includes formulasdefining properties of the predicate and function symbols used in thesemantics of expressions and types.

A Prover implements a theorem proving algorithm for first-order logic(or an extension), that will determine whether a formula is valid giventhe background theory B; it may also terminate indicating the formula isinvalid, or it may loop, as the problem is undecidable. The backgroundtheory is part of the state of the Prover; formulas can be added orremoved from the background theory while the Prover executes.

Some of the background theory can also be built into the Prover asstandard, e.g., a theory of arithmetic, and some can be provided by thetypechecking algorithm, e.g., the functions T[e] and F[T](t) may definenew predicate and function symbols and may augment the background theorywith formulas concerning the new symbols.

Given E, to determine whether S is a subtype of T, as mentioned, theformula (B

[E])

(∀x. F[S](x)

F[T](x)) is constructed, and the Prover is invoked to determine whetherthe formula is valid. If the Prover says the formula is valid, then itis known that S is a subtype of T. If the Prover says it is not valid,then S is not a subtype of T. If the Prover loops, or terminates sayingit does not know, then the subtyping question is unknown, and anotherprover can be tried, or another pre-defined action taken.

In addition, the Prover may be invoked programmatically by directlycalling its API, or by constructing a text file containing some or allof the formula and running the Prover on the file.

There are several logically equivalent methods of sending the formula (B

[E])

(∀x. F[S](x)

F[T](x)) to the Prover. For example, the formula may be constructed inone piece and sent to the Prover, or equivalently it may be constructedin separate pieces with each piece being sent separately, as illustratedin FIG. 4. For example, the pieces B and [E] may be sent to the prover,and then given this background theory we ask whether (∀x. F[S](x)

F[T](x)) is valid.

Alternatively, if it is ensured that variable x does not occur free in Band [E], the pieces B and [E] and F[S](x) can be sent to the Prover, andthen it can be asked whether F[T](x) is valid. In all these cases, itmay be that some or all of B may be built into the Prover, so that onlythe unknown part need be sent for efficiency. Exemplary non-limitingProvers that can be used to process the first order logic formulaeinclude Z3, Simplify, Spass, Otter, and Vampire.

There are several different syntaxes that may be used for the formula.These syntaxes include the S-expression-based format of the DEC/HPSimplify theorem prover, the syntax of the SMT-Lib benchmarks, and thenative syntax of the Microsoft Z3 theorem prover. A goal of SMT-LIB isto establish a library of benchmarks for Satisfiability Modulo Theories,that is, satisfiability of formulas with respect to background theoriesfor which specialized decision procedures exist—such as, for instance,the theory of lists, of arrays, linear arithmetic, and so on. Systemsfor satisfiability modulo theories have applications in formalverification, compiler optimization, and scheduling, among others.

However, in accordance with the embodiments herein, the translation ofprogramming constructs targets first-order logic, but since higher-orderlogics typically include first-order logic, the algorithm can also beused when the Prover is in fact a theorem prover for a higher-orderlogic.

Below, a core calculus is explored for describing the semantics ofexpressions and types in D. The following describes a formal calculus asa basis for the type system of D. The formal calculus is an assembly ofstandard constructions from type theory. In this regard, in variousembodiments, a type system is provided for a programming language thatfeatures combined support for refinement types and type testexpressions, wherein semantic subtyping is achieved by calling an SMTsolver.

SMT solvers decide logical satisfiability (or dually, validity) offormulas in classical multi-sorted first-order logic with equality, withrespect to a background theory. The success of SMT for program analysisand verification is largely due to the suitability of supportedbackground theories. These theories include: arithmetic; uninterpretedfunctions; recursive data-types; and theories of program structures suchas machine arithmetic (bit-vectors), arrays, and heaps. SMT solvers playa central role in several program analysis and runtime tools.

With respect to collections, entities, and scalars, the followingexample illustrates some features of the language. A comprehension isused to scan over a collection of integers to produce a collection ofentities, each consisting of an integer coupled with a logical flag.

(from n in { 5, 4, 1, 0, 4, 6, 7, 10} where n < 5 select {Num=n,Flag=(n>0)} ) : {Num:Integer; Flag:Logical;}*

The following example illustrates how a nullable version of a type T canbe defined, as the union of T with the singleton type containing onlythe value null

type   Null = (Any where value==null);   NullableInt = Integer || Nullfrom x in ({ null, 42 } : NullableInt*) where x!=null select (x:Integer)

The comprehension removes nulls from its input collection. Given thatx:NullableInt, and the check that x!=null, the typechecker can establishthat x:Int. If the check that x!=null is removed, typechecking fails.

With respect to refinement types, the following example illustrates howsubtypes of Integer can be defined.

let x = (4 : (Integer where value < 5)) in let y = (6 : (Integer wherevalue < 7)) in   x+y : (Integer where value < 11)

The typechecker can establish that the sum x+y must be less than 11. Ifimposing a lower bound is attempted, typechecking fails, as expected.

The following example illustrates dependent typechecking:

type S = { tag:[true]; foo:Integer; };   T = { tag:[false]; bar:Text; }let xs : (S || T)_=   { { tag=true, foo=42 }, { tag=false, bar=“freddy”}} in   from x in xs   select ( x.tag ? “Hello” : x.bar ) : Text

The following example illustrates using type test to processsemistructured data, with the middle field being optional.

type T = {a:Integer;} && (Any || {b:Text;}) && {c:Logical;} let ts:T* ={ {a=42, c=true}, {a=42, b=“Freddy”, c=true}} in from t in ts where t in{b:Text;} select (t.b : Text)

The following Table I illustrates the syntax of values and expressions.

TABLE I Syntax of Values and Expressions Syntax Use x Variable

Field i Integer s String c literals (Booleans, integers, strings) ⊕operator (+, −, <, ==, !, &&, ||, Count)  v::= Value   c literal  {v₁,...,v_(n)} collection (unordered)   {

= v_(i) ^(i∈1..n)} entity (unordered,

_(i) distinct)  e::= expression   x variable   c literal   null null  ⊕(e₁,...,e_(n)) operator application   e₁?e₂ : e₃ conditional   let x= e₁ in e₂ let-expression   e in T type test   e:T type annotation    {

_(i) = e_(i) ^(i∈1..n)} entity   e.

field selection    { } empty collection   {e} unit collection   e₁ + e₂collection union   bind x ← e₁ in e₂ bind-expression

A finite, global set of type definitions can be assumed, each of whichassociates a type expression with a distinct type variable. type X=T iswritten to mean that T is associated with X. The variable X itself mayoccur in T. It can be assumed there are no free occurrences of valuevariables in T. In the following, it can be assumed that expressions aretype checked in the context of a set of type definitions of thefollowing form.type X=T

The body of each definition may mention any of the defined type names,and may be recursive. In this regard, a global map, typedef, that mapstype names to types is assumed, for example, given the above definition,then typedef(X)=T. The syntax of types is set forth in Table II below.

TABLE II Syntax of Types Syntax of Types: S,T,U ::= Type X type variable(with definition type X = T) Any the top type Integer integer Textstring Logical truth values T* collection type {

:T} (single) entity type {x:T | e} refinement type

The informal semantics consists of interdependent evaluation andinhabitation relations: that an expression evaluates to a value, andthat a value inhabits a type. The expression evaluations are set forthbelow in the following bulleted list.

-   -   To evaluate c return c.    -   To evaluate ⊕(e₁, . . . e_(n)), evaluate each e_(i) to a value        v_(i), and return the outcome of combining the values v₁, v_(n)        with the operator ⊕.    -   To evaluate e₁?e₂:e₃, first evaluate e₁. If its value is true        evaluate e₂. If its value of false evaluate e₃. Any other value        for e₁ is an error.    -   To evaluate let x=e₁ in e₂, evaluate e₁ to yield a value v₁, and        evaluate e₂{v₁/x}.    -   To evaluate e in T, evaluate e to a value v, return true or        false depending on whether or not v inhabits T.    -   To evaluate e:T, return the result of evaluating e.    -   To evaluate {        _(i)=e_(i) ^(i∈1 . . . n)}, evaluate each e_(i) to yield a value        v_(i), and return {        _(i)=v_(i) ^(i∈1 . . . n)}.    -   To evaluate e.        , evaluate e to yield an entity {        =v_(i) ^(i∈1 . . . n)}; if        =        _(i) for some j ∈ 1 . . . n, return v_(j).    -   To evaluate {}, return {}.    -   To evaluate {e}, evaluate e to yield a value v, and return {v}.    -   To evaluate e₁+e₂, evaluate each e_(i) to a collection v_(i),        and return the concatenation of v₁ and v₂.    -   To evaluate bind x←e₁ in e₂, evaluate e₁ to yield a collection        {v₁, . . . v_(n)}, then evaluate the expression e₂{v₁/x}+ . . .        +e₂{v_(n)/x}+{/}.

Type inhabitation principles are also illustrated with respect to thebulleted list below.

-   -   A value of type X is is any syntactically well-formed value v        that is a value of type T, where type X=T.    -   A value of type Any is any syntactically well-formed value v.    -   A value of type Integer is an integer literal c=i.    -   A value of type Text is a string literal c=s.    -   A value of type Logical is Boolean literal, either c=true or        c=false.    -   A value of type T* is a collection {v₁, . . . , v_(n)} such that        each v_(i) is a value of type T.    -   A value of type {        T} is an entity {        =v_(i) ^(i∈1 . . . n)} such that        =        _(i) for some j ∈ 1 . . . n, and value v_(j) is of type T.    -   A value of type {x:T e} is a value v of type T such that the        expression e{v/x} evaluates to true.

Union and intersection types can be derived from logical disjunction andconjunction. Moreover, Boolean operators are derivable from conditionalexpressions.

The following are derived types that are possible with the rich,expressive language.

${T❘U}\overset{\bigtriangleup}{=}\{ {x\text{:}{Any}{( {x\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} T} )}( {x\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} U} )} \}$${{T\&}\mspace{11mu} U}\overset{\bigtriangleup}{=}\{ {{x\text{:}{Any}}❘{{{( {x\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} T} )\&}\;\&}( {x\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} U} )}} \}$${Null}\overset{\bigtriangleup}{=}\{ {{x\text{:}{Any}}❘{x=={null}}} \}$${General}\overset{\bigtriangleup}{=}{{{Integer}{{Text}}{Logical}}❘{Null}}$${T?}\overset{\bigtriangleup}{=}{{T❘{{Null}\lbrack e\rbrack}}\overset{\bigtriangleup}{=}\{ {{x\text{:}{Any}\mspace{14mu} x}==e} \}}${ i ⁢ : ⁢ T i ; ⁢ ⁢ i ∈ 1 ⁢ ⁢ … ⁢ ⁢ n } ⁢ = △ ⁢ { Any if ⁢ ⁢ n = 0 #3 otherwise ⁢ ⁢Empty ⁢ = Δ ⁢ { x ⁢ : ⁢ Any ❘ x != x }

The following represent some example types.

-   -   Category={Name: Any;Description: Any;}    -   Category2={Name: Text;Description: Text;}    -   Named={Name: Text;}    -   Ranked={Rank: Integer;}    -   Soldier={Name: Text;Rank: Integer; SerialNumber: Text;}    -   NonNegativeInteger={x:Integer|x≧0}

With respect to syntax of the logic, to obtain a formal semantics forexpressions, consider untyped first-order logic with equality.

Let t range over terms, and F, G, range over formulas.

vld(F) is written to mean that the formula F is valid.

List syntax [t₁; . . . ;t_(n)] and pair syntax (t₁,t₂) are used.

λx.t are written for a term such that ∀y.apply(λx.t, y)=t{y/x}.

With respect to translation of expressions and types, the logicalsemantics include two functions:

-   -   For any expression e, we construct a logic term T[[e]].    -   For any type T and logic term t, we construct a logic formula        F[[T]](t).

Since each value v is an expression, term T[[v]] represents thesemantics of v. The semantics of expressions amd types are set forthbelow in Table III and IV, respectively.

TABLE III Semantics of Expressions Semantics of Expressions: term T[[e]]term(F) = (if F then v_(t)t else v_(f)f) T[[x]] = x T[[true]] =v_ttT[[false]] =v_ff T[[i]] =v_int(i) T[[s]] =v_text(s) T[[null]] =v_nullT[[+(e₁,e₂)]] =v_plus(T[[e₁]],T[[e₂]]) T[[−(e₁,e₂)]]=v_minus(T[[e₁]],T[[e₂]]) T[[<(e₁,e₂)]] =v_It(T[[e₁]],T[[e₂]]) T[[==(e₁,e₂)]] = term(T[[e₁]] = T[[e₂]]) T[[!(e)]] = term(T[[e]] =T[[false]]) T[[&& (e₁,e₂)]] = term(T[[e₁]] = T[[true]]

T[[e₂]] = T[[true]]) T[[|| (e₁,e₂)]] = term(T[[e₁]] = T[[true]]

T[[e₂]] = T[[true]]) T[[Count(e)]] =v_len(T[[e]]) T[[e₁?e₂ : e₃]] = (ifT[[e₁]] = T[[true]] then T[[e₂]] else T[[e₃]]) T[[let x = e₁ in e₂]]=let x = T[[e₁]] in T[[e₂]] T[[e in T]] = term(F[[T]](T[[e]])) T[[e:T]]= T[[e]] T[[ {

_(i) = e_(i) ^(i∈1..n)} ]] = E([(

₁,T[[e₁]]);...;(

_(n),T[[e_(n)]])]) T[[e

] = dot(T[[e]],

) T[[ { } ]] =C([ ]) T[[ {e} ]] =C([T[[e]]]) T[[e₁ +e₂]] =plus(T[[e₁]],T[[e₂]]) T[[bind x ← e₁ in e₂]]=v_join(v_map(λx.T[[e₂]],T[[e₁]]))

TABLE IV Semantics of Types Semantics of Types: formula F[[T]](t)F[[X]](t) = p_(X)(t) F[[Any]](t) =Value(t) F[[Integer]](t)=In_Integer(t) F[[Text]](t) =In_Text(t) F[[Logical]](t) =In_Logical(t)F[[T*]](t) =Is_C(t)

(∀x.v_mem(x,t)

F[[T]](x))  x ∉fv(T,t) F[[ {

:T} ]](t) =Is_E(t)

F[[T]](dot(t,

)) F[[ {x:T | e} ]](t) =  let x = t in (F[[T]](t)

(T[[e]] = T[[true]])) x ∉fv(T,t)

A background theory, a conjunction B, can be assumed that:

1. includes conjuncts defining properties of the fixed predicate andfunction symbols used in the semantics of expressions and types(including arithmetic);

2. includes a conjunct ∀x.p_(x)(x)

F[[T]](x) for each type definition type X=T;

3. includes a constant definition for each λx.t used in the semantics.

vld_(B)(F) is written to mean that formula F is valid given thebackground theory B, that is, vld(B=>F).

In addition, the following proposition applies:

1. For all closed expressions e and values v, e evaluates to v if andonly if vld_(B)(T[[e]]=T[[v]]).

2. For all closed T and v, value v inhabits type T if and only ifvld_(B)(F[[T]](T[[v]])).

With respect to judgments of the type system, the following applies tothe syntax and semantics of typing environments:

E::=x₁:T₁, . . . , x_(n):T_(n) (ordered) environment

The notation Ø is used for the empty environment.

dom(x₁:  T₁, …  , x_(n):  T_(n)) = {x₁, …  , x_(n)}${F〚{{x_{1}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T_{1}},\ldots\mspace{14mu},{x_{n}\text{:}T_{n}}}〛}\overset{\bigtriangleup}{=}{{F〚T_{1}〛}{( x_{1} )\bigwedge\ldots\bigwedge{F〚T_{n}〛}}( x_{n} )}$${F〚Ø〛}\overset{\bigtriangleup}{=}{True}$

Judgments of the type system are set forth in Table V below:

TABLE V Judgments of the Type System Judgments of the Type System: E ├ ⋄environment E is wellformed Γ ├ e <: T in E, S is a subtype of type T Γ├ e → T in E, expression e synthesizes type T Γ ├ e ← T in E, expressione checks against type T

For some additional background, the relations Γ├e→T and Γ├←T represent abidirectional type system. The rules for Γ├e→T amount to an algorithmthat can be informally read “in context E the expression e synthesis thetype T”. The rules for Γ├e←T amount to an algorithm that can beinformally read “in context E, the e can be typechecked at type T”.

For wellformed Environments, the following judgment applies:

(Env  Empty)   (Env  Item) $\overset{\_}{E \vdash ♦}$$\frac{E \vdash {{♦\; x} \notin {{{dom}(E)}{{fv}(T)}} \subseteq {{dom}(E)}}}{E,{{x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T} \vdash ♦}}$E ⊢ ♦ x ∉ dom(E)fv(T) ⊆ dom(E)

For subtyping, the following judgment can be expressed:

(Subtype) $\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash {♦\;{{fv}( {S,T} )}}} \\{{vld}_{B}( {F〚E〛}\Rightarrow( {\forall {{x \cdot {F〚S〛}}(x)}\Rightarrow{{F〚T〛}(x)} } ) )}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash {S < {\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T}}}$

Other functions that are assumed include:

1. E├S<:T is a subtyping judgment that asserts that type S is a subtypeof T. Any algorithm that soundly approximates this relation can be used.

2. T.1

S takes a D entity type T and returns S the type of the field

. Any algorithm that soundly approximates this function can be used.

3. T.Items

S takes a D collection type T and returns S, the type of the items.Again, any algorithm that soundly approximates this function can beused.

4. S+T

U takes two D collection types S and T and returns the type Urepresenting the union of the two collection types. Any algorithm thatsoundly approximates this function can be used.

The following are the type system rules for type synthesis ofexpressions, the second judgment form:

(Synth  Var)$\frac{E,{x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T},{E^{\prime} \vdash ♦}}{E,{x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T},{E^{\prime} \vdash  xarrow T }}$(Synth  Logical  1)$\frac{E \vdash ♦}{E \vdash  {true}arrow\lbrack{true}\rbrack }$(Synth  Logical  2)$\frac{E \vdash ♦}{E \vdash  {false}arrow\lbrack{false}\rbrack }$(Synth  Integer)$\frac{E \vdash ♦}{E \vdash  iarrow\lbrack i\rbrack }$(Synth  Text)$\frac{E \vdash ♦}{E \vdash  sarrow\lbrack s\rbrack }$(Synth  Null)${\frac{E \vdash ♦}{E \vdash  {null}arrow\lbrack{null}\rbrack }E} \vdash {♦( {{Synth}\mspace{14mu}{Cond}} )}$${\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow{Logical} } \\{E,{{{- \text{:}}\{ {x\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Any}} \middle| {e\; 1} \}} \vdash  {e\; 2}arrow S }} \\{E,{{{- \text{:}}\{ {x\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Any}} \middle| {e\; 1} \}} \vdash  {e\; 3}arrow T }}\end{matrix}}{ {E \vdash  {e\;{1?e}\; 2\text{:}\mspace{14mu} e\; 3}arrow S } \middle| T }E} \vdash  e_{1}arrow{{Logical}( {{Synth}\mspace{14mu}{Let}} )} $${\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow T } \\{E,{{x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T} \vdash  {e\; 2}arrow U }}\end{matrix}}{{E \vdash {{let}\mspace{14mu} x}} =  {e\; 1\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} e\; 2}arrow{U\{ {e\;{1/x}} \}} }E} \vdash  e_{1}arrow T $E, x:  T ⊢ e₂ → U

In the rule above the synthesized type S|T denotes the union of thetypes S and T. The algorithm may implement optimisations at this pointto return a more precise type. For example if S and T are both the typeInteger, then the algorithm may return simply Integer.

(Synth  In)$\frac{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow T }{E \vdash  {e\; 1\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} T}arrow{Logical} }$(Synth  Annot)${\frac{E \vdash  earrow S }{E \vdash  {e\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T}arrow T }E} \vdash  earrow S $

The rule (Synth Annot) may either check that there is a subtyperelationship between the synthesized type S and ascribed type T (ineither direction), or insert a runtime type test to check that theexpression e does conform to type T, or both.

(Synth  Entity)$\frac{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow{T\; 1\mspace{14mu}\ldots\mspace{14mu} E}  \vdash  {en}arrow{Tn} }{{{{{E \vdash  \{ {{{l\; 1} = {e\; 1}},\ldots\mspace{14mu},{\ln = {en}}} \}arrow\{ {l\; 1\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T\; 1} \} }\&}\mspace{14mu}\ldots}\;\&}\{ {\ln\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Tn}} \}}$(Synth  Dot)${{\frac{E \vdash  earrow{T\mspace{14mu}{T \cdot l}U} }{E \vdash  {e \cdot l}arrow U }E} \vdash  earrow T }\;$T ⋅ ℓ U(Synth  Unit)$\frac{E \vdash  earrow T }{E \vdash  \{ e \}arrow{T*} }$(Synth  Zero)$\overset{\_}{E \vdash  {\{\}}arrow\lbrack {\{\}} \rbrack }$(Synth  Bind) ${\frac{\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow S } \\{{S \cdot {Items}}T}\end{matrix} \\{E,{{x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T} \vdash  {e\; 2}arrow U }}\end{matrix} \\{E \vdash {U < {\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Any}*}}}\end{matrix} \\{x \notin {{fv}(U)}}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  {{bind}\; x}arrow {e\; 1\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} e\; 2}arrow U  }E} \vdash  e_{1}arrow{S\;{S \cdot {Items}}( {{Synth}\mspace{14mu}{Plus}} )\frac{\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow S } \\{E \vdash  {e\; 2}arrow T }\end{matrix} \\{S + {TU}}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  {{e\; 1} + {e\; 2}}arrow U }} $

With respect to the type checking rules set forth below, the main ruleis for type checking against a refinement type. The rule for typechecking refinement types, along with those for checking the Any (top)type and a type variable, are as follows:

(Check  Refinement) $\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow T } \\{E,{{x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T} \vdash  {e\; 2}arrow{Logical} }} \\{{check\_ is}{\_ true}\mspace{11mu}( {E,{e\;{2\lbrack {e\;{1/x}} \rbrack}}} )}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow\{ {x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T} \middle| {e\; 2} \} }$

In the rule (Check Refinement) above we have assumed some auxiliaryroutine check_is_true to determine whether the expression e2 withinstances of the variable x replaced by e1 is logically true. This checkmay be attempted as part of the type checking processing or at runtime(by inserting the check into the expression) or both.

(Check  Any)$\frac{E \vdash  earrow T }{E \vdash  earrow{Any} }$(Check  Type  Var) $\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  earrow T } \\{{{typedef}(X)} = T}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  earrow X }$

The rest of the type checking rules are as follows. It is noted that thethree rules above (refinement types, Any types, variable types) takeprecedence over any of the following rules.

(Check  Var)$\frac{ {〚E〛} \middle| {\vdash {{〚U〛}x}} }{E \vdash  xarrow U }$(Check  Logical  1)$\frac{E \vdash ♦}{E \vdash  {true}arrow{Logical} }$(Check  Logical  2)$ {\frac{E \vdash ♦}{E \vdash  {false}arrow{Logical} }〚E〛} | = {{〚U〛}(x)}$(Check  Integer)$\frac{E \vdash ♦}{E \vdash  iarrow{Integer} }$(Check  Text)$\frac{E \vdash ♦}{E \vdash  sarrow{Text} }$(Check  Cond) $\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow{Logical} } \\{E,{{{- \text{:}}\{ {x\text{:}\;{Any}} \middle| {e\; 1} \}} \vdash  {e\; 2}arrow S }} \\{E,{{{- \text{:}}\{ {x\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Any}} \middle| {e\; 1} \}} \vdash  {e\; 3}arrow S }}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  {e\;{1?e}\; 2\text{:}\mspace{11mu} e\; 3}arrow S }$(Check  Let) $\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow T } \\{E,{{x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T} \vdash  {e\; 2}arrow U }}\end{matrix}}{{E \vdash {{let}\mspace{14mu} x}} =  {e\; 1\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} e\; 2}arrow U }$(Check  In) $\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow S } \\{E \vdash {{Logical} < {\text{:}\mspace{11mu} U}}}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  {e\; 1\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} T}arrow U }$(Check  Annot) $\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  earrow S } \\{E \vdash {T < {\text{:}\mspace{11mu} U}}}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  {e\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T}arrow U }$

The rule (Check Annot) may either check that there is a subtyperelationship between the synthesized type S and ascribed type T (oreither direction), or insert a runtime type test to check that theexpression e does conform to type T, or both.

(Check  Entity) $\frac{\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {ej}arrow{Tj} } \\{1 \leq j \leq n}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  \{ {{{l\; 1} = {e\; 1}},\ldots\mspace{11mu},{\ln = {en}}} \}arrow\{ {{lj}\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Tj}} \} }$(Check  Dot)$\frac{E \vdash  earrow\{ {l\text{:}\mspace{11mu} U} \} }{E \vdash  {e \cdot l}arrow U }$(Check  Unit)$\frac{E \vdash  earrow T }{E \vdash  \{ e \}arrow{T*} }$(Check  Zero)$\overset{\_}{E \vdash  {\{\}}arrow{T*} }$(Check  Bind) $\frac{\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow S } \\{{S \cdot {Items}}T}\end{matrix} \\{E,{{x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T} \vdash  {e\; 2}arrow U }}\end{matrix} \\{E \vdash {U < {\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Any}*}}}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  {{bind}\mspace{14mu} x}arrow{e\; 1\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} e\; 2}arrow U }$(Check  Plus) $\frac{\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{E \vdash  {e\; 1}arrow T } \\{E \vdash  {e\; 2}arrow T }\end{matrix} \\{E \vdash {T < {\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Any}*}}}\end{matrix}}{E \vdash  {{e\; 1} + {e\; 2}}arrow T }$

The following soundness property relates the checking and synthesisrelations to the logical semantics of types and expressions.

Theorem 1 If E├e←T or E├e→T then vld_(B)(F[[E]]

F[[T]](T[[e]])).

A corollary is that if Ø├e→T or Ø├e←T and e evaluates to a value v, thenv is a value of type T. Moreover, since values inhabit their expectedtypes, there can be no run-time type violations. The combination ofrefinement types (which are types depending on expressions) and typetest (which are expressions depending on types) is highly expressive.Defining the semantics of types as logical formulas and semanticsubtyping as valid implication, with the typechecker invoking a theoremprover, is also beneficial. Embodiments advantageously check semanticsubtyping by invoking an SMT solver based on first order logic. Asdescribed herein, a highly expressive combination of refinement types,type test, and semantic subtyping enables powerful mechanisms forvalidating code statically.

By mechanizing logical semantics within an SMT solver, static, ratherthan dynamic, checking of type-based constraints is enabled.

Supplemental Context for Type System

For additional understanding, supplemental context regarding theembodiments for a type system of a data scripting language is set forthbelow, but first some background is presented with reference to FIG. 7regarding different ways that D programs can be represented and usedaccording to a D compilation chain. For instance, source code 700 can beauthored directly by developers, or machines. Source code 700 can becompiled by a D compiler 710 including, for instance, a D parser 720 forparsing source code 700 and a D Syntax Tree component 730 for forming DSyntax Trees, which can then be analyzed and transformed to D Graphstructures 740.

D Graph structures 740 can be generated by developers directly, and alsoby applications, and represented in a compact manner. D Graph structures740 can be unwound to trees 730 and back to source code 700, and D Graphstructures 740 can be compiled or semi-compiled to object code inconnection with data intensive applications according to various domainspecific uses 750, such as SQL database queries, enterprise datamanagement (EDM), spreadsheet applications, graphics applications, i.e.,anywhere that data can be stored and analyzed.

A typed language, such as the D programming language, refers to thenotion that the range of values the variables of the language can assumeare bounded. An upper bound of such a range is called a type. A typesystem is a component of a typed language that keeps track of the typesof variables and, in general, of the types of all expressions in aprogram. The types that can be specified and checked in “D” have notbeen enabled by conventional systems, and such types are described inmore detail below.

As mentioned, in various non-limiting embodiments, the present inventionprovides a type system for a data scripting language that combinesrefinement types and typecase expressions in the refinement language toenable a simple yet rich type language. In one embodiment, a top type issupported which in combination with refinement types and type testexpressions in the refinement language yields further expressivity tothe type language. Using this expressive type system, data intensiveapplications can be statically verified.

As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 8, in one embodiment, adeclarative programming language, such as the D programming language,includes a variety of programming constructs 800 that form part of aprogram. Systems, applications, services can specify such constructs 800or execute them as D programs against data store(s) 860 to achieve dataintensive results. In one non-limiting aspect, a type system 850 of theprogramming model underlying the programming constructs 800 includessupport for the combination of refinement types 810 and type membershipevaluation 820, also known as type test, within an expression of arefinement type 810. In this regard, the combination of refinement typesand support for type membership evaluation within the refinement typeexpression is not supported by conventional systems.

As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 9, in addition to the capabilitiesof type system 250, a type system 950 can also include a top typeencompassing all valid values 930. In other words, the top type is theleast constrained type of any type found in a programming model havingthe top type. As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 10, optionally, inaddition to the other capabilities, a type system 1050 can furtherinclude support for values as types 1020, and also types as values 1010.

Types in “D” include typical primitive types such as Integer, Text, andLogical, along with collection types, written T* (meaning a collectionof values of type T), and entity, or record types, written {l1:T1, . . ., ln:Tn} (meaning an entity with fields l1, . . . ,ln of types T1, . . .,Tn, respectively).

In one implementation of the above-described type systems for a datascripting language, a type system supports a “top” type, written Any.All valid D values are values of this “least constrained” type. Inaddition, refinement types are supported, which can be written{value:T|e} where value is an identifier, T is a type and e is aBoolean-valued expression, e.g., “D” syntax for a refinement type issimply “T where e”. The values of such a type are the valid “D” valuesof type T for which the Boolean expression e is equivalent to true.

For example, the value 42 is a member of the type {x:Integer|x>41}, asthe value 42 is of type Integer and it satisfies the test x>41 since 42is indeed greater than 41. For further example, the value 43 is a memberof this type as well, but 40 is not. In addition, the type systemsupports Boolean-valued expressions in refinements. Boolean expressionforms of “and” “or”, “not”, “implies” are supported, and in addition,the type system includes a type membership test, or type test,expression written “e in T”. The operational behavior of the type testexpression is to evaluate the expression e and determine whether theresulting value is in the set of values of type T.

In this regard, combining the above features of a type system yieldssome powerful and elegant expressions for defining types. For example,FIG. 11 illustrates a first non-limiting benefit, which is that a type1120 can be defined in a single compact expression that is theintersection of a first type 1100 and a second type 1110, both definedby constraint-based or structural typing. The intersection type of typeS and T can be expressed as follows:

{x:Any|x in T && x in S}

FIG. 12 illustrates another non-limiting benefit, namely that a type1220 can be defined in a single compact expression that is the union ofa first type 1200 and a second type 1210, both defined byconstraint-based or structural typing. The union type of type S and Tcan be expressed as follows:

{x:Any|x in T∥x in S}

Another non-limiting benefit of a type system with a top type, or toplevel type, is that the empty type can also be expressed as shown inFIG. 13. By negating the top type “Any”, an empty type 1320 can beexpressed which is the set of no valid types. In D, the empty type canbe expressed as follows:

{x:Any|false}

For further understanding, a type system can be described mathematicallyusing a collection of judgments. A judgment is of the following formΓ├

where

is some assertion, the free variables of which are declared in Γ. Thecontext Γ is an ordered list of distinct variables and their types ofthe form Ø, x1:T1, . . . , xn:Tn. (The empty context Ø is sometimesdropped.)

The primary judgment form of a type system is a typing judgment whichasserts that an expression e has type T in context Γ, e.g., the freevariables of e are defined in Γ. This can be stated as follows:Γ├e:T

The assertion e:T, i.e., the assertion that expression e has type T, isa relation. In other words, a given expression may be said to have manytypes. An expression e is said to be well-typed in context Γ if thereexists a type T such that Γ├e:T. A (formal) type system can be specifiedby giving a set of type rules that define the validity of certainjudgments on the basis of other judgments that are assumed to be valid.

Another judgment form is a subtyping judgment that asserts that a type Sis a subtype of another type T, and is written as follows.Γ├S<:T

The type system of the “D” programming language can be formallyspecified by giving a set of type rules that define such judgments. Forexample, determining whether a type test expression is well-typed isdefined by the following type rule.

$\frac{\Gamma \vdash {e\text{:}\mspace{11mu} S}}{\Gamma \vdash {e\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} T\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Logical}}}$

In other words, the expression e in T is well-typed (and of typeLogical) in context Γ if expression is of some type S.

Another rule allows subtyping to be introduced.

$\frac{\Gamma \vdash {e\text{:}\mspace{11mu} S\;\Gamma} \vdash {S < {\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T}}}{\Gamma \vdash {e\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T}}$

This rule states that if an expression e is of type S in context Γ and,moreover, S is a subtype of T, then expression e is also of type T.

The rule for determining whether an expression is of the type Any is asfollows.

$\frac{\Gamma \vdash {e\text{:}\mspace{11mu} S}}{\Gamma \vdash {e\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Any}}}$

The rule for determining whether an expression is of a refinement typeis as follows.

$\frac{\begin{matrix}{{\Gamma \vdash {e\; 1\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T\;\Gamma}},} \\{{x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T} \vdash {e\; 2\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Logical}\mspace{20mu}{check\_ is}{\_ true}( {\Gamma,{e\;{2\lbrack {e\;{1/x}} \rbrack}}} )}}\end{matrix}}{\Gamma \vdash {e\; 1\text{:}\mspace{11mu}\{ {x\text{:}\mspace{11mu} T} \middle| {e\; 2} \}}}$

In other words, if expression e1 is of type T in context Γ, andexpression e2 is of type Logical in context (r, x:T), and the Booleanexpression e2 with e1 substituted for x can be determined to belogically true (we assume some auxiliary routine check_is_true todetermine this fact), then the expression e1 is of type {x:T|e2}. Anexample of a derivation of a valid judgment is as follows.

$\frac{\begin{matrix}{\varnothing \vdash {42\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Integer}\mspace{14mu} x\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Integer}} \vdash {x > {41\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Logical}\mspace{14mu}{check\_ is}{\_ true}}}} \\( {\varnothing,{42 > 41}} )\end{matrix}}{\varnothing \vdash {42\text{:}\mspace{14mu}\{ {x\text{:}\mspace{11mu}{Integer}} \middle| {x > 41} \}}}$

The auxiliary check (check_is_true ) that the refinement expression issatisfied may alternatively not be performed by the type-system but maybe inserted into the expression to be checked at runtime.

Accordingly, by implementing a type system as described above, andadhering to the above-described rules and judgments, expressive typescan be specified as part of programs that can be statically verified.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for definingdeclarative code according to a declarative programming model comprisinga type system supporting type refinement and type membership. At 1400, aspecification of programming construct(s) of a declarative programminglanguage is received by a computing system, device, application orservice. At 1410, this may include receiving a programming constructspecifying a refinement type construct that defines one or more types byspecifying values for which a Boolean expression is true. As shown at1420, this may also include receiving, within the type refinementconstruct, a specification of a type membership test construct thatdetermines whether one or more resulting values of evaluating anexpression is a member of an indicated type. At 1430, a machine readablerepresentation of code can be generated based on the specification ofthe programming construct(s). Advantageously, the type system enables,but is not limited to enabling, intersection and/or union operations ondifferent types.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a system including a data processingsystem 1520 communicatively coupled to data store(s) 1550 for performingdata intensive processing with declarative code. In this regard, system1520 includes declarative code modules that implement a type system 1510supporting constraint-based type refinement and type membership. Thedeclarative code 1530 is specified according to a declarativeprogramming model 1500 that supports an underlying type system 1510 thatsupports a refinement type of the type system that defines a type byshaping the type relative to an unlimited top level type representingall types. In addition, the refinement type can include a type testconstruct that tests an evaluation of an expression for membership of anindicated type. Furthermore, a type checking component 1540 evaluatestypes of the declarative code to determine an error based on at leastone rule that defines the validity of typing of the programmingconstruct. Also, as mentioned, any of the embodiments herein may be inthe context of a programming language wherein types can have values andvalues can have types.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for executingdeclarative code by at least one processor of a computing device. At1600, a declarative program is received, wherein the declarative programis specified according to a type system that supports, within aprogramming construct of the declarative program, typing by refinement,evaluation of type membership and a top type of which all valid valuesof the declarative program are a member. At 1610, the declarativeprogram can optionally be specified according to a type system thatsupports types having values and values having types. At 1620, the typesrepresented in the declarative program are type checked according to aset of typing rules and judgments associated with the type system. At1630, execution, storage or modification of the declarative program cantake place.

Exemplary Declarative Programming Language

For the avoidance of doubt, the additional context provided in thissubsection regarding a declarative programming language, such as the Dprogramming language, is to be considered non-exhaustive andnon-limiting. The particular example snippets of pseudo-code set forthbelow are for illustrative and explanatory purposes only, and are not tobe considered limiting on the embodiments of the semantic subtyping withtransformation to first order logic described above in various detail.

In FIG. 17, an exemplary process chain for a declarative model isprovided, such as a model based on the D programming language. Asillustrated, process chain 1700 may include a coupling of compiler 1720,packaging component 1730, synchronization component 1740, and aplurality of repositories 1750, 1752, . . . , 1754. Within suchembodiment, a source code 1710 input to compiler 1720 represents adeclarative execution model authored in a declarative programminglanguage, such as the D programming language. With the D programminglanguage, for instance, the execution model embodied by source code 1710advantageously follows constraint-based typing, or structural typing,and/or advantageously embodies an order-independent or unorderedexecution model to simplify the development of code.

Compiler 1720 processes source codes 1710 and can generate apost-processed definition for each source code. Although other systemsperform compilation down to an imperative format, the declarative formatof the source code, while transformed, is preserved. Packaging component1730 packages the post-processed definitions as image files, such asD_Image files in the case of the D programming language, which areinstallable into particular repositories 1750, 1752, . . . , 1754. Imagefiles include definitions of necessary metadata and extensible storageto store multiple transformed artifacts together with their declarativesource model. For example, packaging component 1730 may set particularmetadata properties and store the declarative source definition togetherwith compiler output artifacts as content parts in an image file.

With the D programming language, the packaging format employed bypackaging component 1730 is conformable with the ECMA Open PackagingConventions (OPC) standards. One of ordinary skill would readilyappreciate that this standard intrinsically offers features likecompression, grouping, signing, and the like. This standard also definesa public programming model (API), which allows an image file to bemanipulated via standard programming tools. For example, in the .NETFramework, the API is defined within the “System.IO.Packaging”namespace.

Synchronization component 1740 is a tool that can be used to manageimage files. For example, synchronization component 1740 may take animage file as an input and link it with a set of referenced image files.In between or afterwards, there could be several supporting tools (likere-writers, optimizers, etc.) operating over the image file byextracting packaged artifacts, processing them and adding more artifactsin the same image file. These tools may also manipulate some metadata ofthe image file to change the state of the image file, e.g., digitallysigning an image file to ensure its integrity and security.

Next, a deployment utility deploys the image file and an installationtool installs it into a running execution environment withinrepositories 1750, 1752, . . . , 1754. Once an image file is deployed,it may be subject to various post deployment tasks including export,discovery, servicing, versioning, uninstall and more. With the Dprogramming language, the packaging format offers support for all theseoperations while still meeting enterprise-level industry requirementslike security, extensibility, scalability and performance. In oneembodiment, repositories 1750 can be a collection of relational databasemanagement systems (RDBMS), however any storage can be accommodated.

In one embodiment, the methods described herein are operable with aprogramming language having a constraint-based type system. Such aconstraint-based system provides functionality not simply available withtraditional, nominal type systems. In FIGS. 18-19, a nominally typedexecution system is compared to a constraint-based typed executionsystem according to an embodiment of the invention. As illustrated, thenominal system 1800 assigns a particular type for every value, whereasvalues in constraint-based system 1810 may conform with any of aninfinite number of types.

For an illustration of the contrast between a nominally-typed executionmodel and a constraint-based typed model according to a declarativeprogramming language described herein, such as the D programminglanguage, exemplary code for type declarations of each model arecompared below.

First, with respect to a nominally-typed execution model the followingexemplary C# code is illustrative:

class A {   public string Bar;   public int Foo; } class B {   publicstring Bar;   public int Foo; }

For this declaration, a rigid type-value relationship exists in which Aand B values are considered incomparable even if the values of theirfields, Bar and Foo, are identical. In contrast, with respect to aconstraint-based model, the following exemplary D code (discussed inmore detail below) is illustrative of how objects can conform to anumber of types:

type A { Bar : Text; Foo : Integer; } type B { Bar : Text; Foo :Integer; }

For this declaration, the type-value relationship is much more flexibleas all values that conform to type A also conform to B, and vice-versa.Moreover, types in a constraint-based model may be layered on top ofeach other, which provides flexibility that can be useful, e.g., forprogramming across various RDBMSs. Indeed, because types in aconstraint-based model initially include all values in the universe, aparticular value is conformable with all types in which the value doesnot violate a constraint codified in the type's declaration. The set ofvalues conformable with type defined by the declaration type T:Textwhere value<128 thus includes “all values in the universe” that do notviolate the “Integer” constraint or the “value<128” constraint.

Thus, in one embodiment, the programming language of the source code isa purely declarative language that includes a constraint-based typesystem as described above, such as implemented in the D programminglanguage.

In another embodiment, the method described herein is also operable witha programming language having an order-independent, or unordered,execution model. Similar to the above described constraint-basedexecution model, such an order-independent execution model providesflexibility that can be useful, e.g., for programming across variousRDBMSs.

In FIGS. 20-21, for illustrative purposes, a data storage abstractionaccording to an ordered execution model is compared to a data storageabstraction according to an order-independent execution model. Forexample, data storage abstraction 2000 of FIG. 20 represents a list Foocreated according to an ordered execution model, whereas dataabstraction 2010 of FIG. 21 represents a similar list Foo created by anorder-independent execution model.

As illustrated, each of data storage abstractions 2000 and 2010 includea set of three Bar values (i.e., “1”, “2”, and “3”). However, datastorage abstraction 2000 requires these Bar values to be entered/listedin a particular order, whereas data storage abstraction 2010 has no suchrequirement. Instead, data storage abstraction 2010 simply assigns an IDto each Bar value, wherein the order that these Bar values wereentered/listed is unobservable to the targeted repository. For instance,data storage abstraction 2010 may have thus resulted from the followingorder-independent code:

f: Foo* = {Bar = “1”}; f: Foo* = {Bar = “2”}; f: Foo* = {Bar = “3”};

However, data storage abstraction 2010 may have also resulted from thefollowing code:

f: Foo* = {Bar = “3”}; f: Foo* = {Bar = “1”}; f: Foo* = {Bar = “2”};

And each of the two codes above are functionally equivalent to thefollowing code:

f: Foo*={{Bar=“2”}, {Bar=“3”}, {Bar=“1”}};

An exemplary declarative language that is compatible with the abovedescribed constraint based typing and unordered execution model is the Dprogramming language, sometimes referred to herein as “D” forconvenience, which was developed by the assignee of the presentinvention. However, in addition to D, it is to be understood that othersimilar declarative programming languages may be used, and that theutility of the invention is not limited to any single programminglanguage, where any one or more of the embodiments of the semanticsubtyping with transformation to first order logic described aboveapply. In this regard, some additional context regarding D is providedbelow.

As mentioned, D is a declarative language for working with data. D letsusers determine how they want to structure and query their data using aconvenient textual syntax that is both authorable and readable. In onenon-limiting aspect, a D program includes of one or more source files,known formally as compilation units, wherein the source file is anordered sequence of Unicode characters. Source files typically have aone-to-one correspondence with files in a file system, but thiscorrespondence is not required. For maximal portability, it isrecommended that files in a file system be encoded with the UTF-8encoding.

Conceptually speaking, a D program is compiled using four steps: 1)Lexical analysis, which translates a stream of Unicode input charactersinto a stream of tokens (Lexical analysis evaluates and executespreprocessing directives); 2) Syntactic analysis, which translates thestream of tokens into an abstract syntax tree; 3) Semantic analysis,which resolves all symbols in the abstract syntax tree, type checks thestructure and generates a semantic graph; and 4) Code generation, whichgenerates executable instructions from the semantic graph for sometarget runtime (e.g. SQL, producing an image). Further tools may linkimages and load them into a runtime.

As a declarative language, D does not mandate how data is stored oraccessed, nor does it mandate a specific implementation technology (incontrast to a domain specific language such as XAML). Rather, D wasdesigned to allow users to write down what they want from their datawithout having to specify how those desires are met against a giventechnology or platform. That stated, D in no way prohibitsimplementations from providing rich declarative or imperative supportfor controlling how D constructs are represented and executed in a givenenvironment, and thus, enables rich development flexibility.

D builds on three basic concepts: values, types, and extents. Thesethree concepts can be defined as follows: 1) a value is data thatconforms to the rules of the D language, 2) a type describes a set ofvalues, and 3) an extent provides dynamic storage for values.

In general, D separates the typing of data from the storage/extent ofthe data. A given type can be used to describe data from multipleextents as well as to describe the results of a calculation. This allowsusers to start writing down types first and decide where to put orcalculate the corresponding values later.

On the topic of determining where to put values, the D language does notspecify how an implementation maps a declared extent to an externalstore such as an RDBMS. However, D was designed to make suchimplementations possible and is compatible with the relational model.

With respect to data management, D is a functional language that doesnot have constructs for changing the contents of an extent, however, Danticipates that the contents of an extent can change via external (toD) stimuli and optionally, D can be modified to provide declarativeconstructs for updating data.

It is often desirable to write down how to categorize values for thepurposes of validation or allocation. In D, values are categorized usingtypes, wherein a D type describes a collection of acceptable orconformant values. Moreover, D types are used to constrain which valuesmay appear in a particular context (e.g., an operand, a storagelocation).

With a few notable exceptions, D allows types to be used as collections.For example, the “in” operator can be used to test whether a valueconforms to a given type, such as:

1 in Number “Hello, world” in Text

It should be noted that the names of built-in types are availabledirectly in the D language. New names for types, however, may also beintroduced using type declarations. For example, the type declarationbelow introduces the type name “My Text” as a synonym for the “Text”simple type:

type [My Text]:Text;

With this type name now available, the following code may be written:

“Hello, world” in [My Text]

While it is useful to introduce custom names for an existing type, it iseven more useful to apply a predicate to an underlying type, such as:

type SmallText:Text where value.Count<7;

In this example, the universe of possible “Text” values has beenconstrained to those in which the value contains less than sevencharacters. Accordingly, the following statements hold true for thistype definition:

“Terse” in SmallText !(“Verbose” in SmallText)

Type declarations compose:

type TinyText:SmallText where value.Count<6;

However, in this example, this declaration is equivalent to thefollowing:

type TinyText:Text where value.Count<6;

It is noted that the name of the type exists so a D declaration orexpression can refer to it. Any number of names can be assigned to thesame type (e.g., Text where value.Count<7) and a given value eitherconforms to all of them or to none of them. For example, consider thisexample:

type A : Number where value < 100; type B : Number where value < 100:

Given these two type definitions, both of the following expressions:

1 in A 1 in Bwill evaluate to true. If the following third type is introduced:

type C:Number where value>0;

the following can be stated:

1 in C

A general principle of D is that a given value can conform to any numberof types. This is a departure from the way many object-based systemswork, in which a value is bound to a specific type atinitialization-time and is a member of the finite set of subtypes thatwere specified when the type was defined.

Another type-related operation that bears discussion is the typeascription operator (:). The type ascription operator asserts that agiven value conforms to a specific type.

In general, when values in expressions are seen, D has some notion ofthe expected type of that value based on the declared result type forthe operator/function being applied. For example, the result of thelogical and operator (&&) is declared to be conformant with type“Logical.”

It is occasionally useful (or even required) to apply additionalconstraints to a given value—typically to use that value in anothercontext that has differing requirements. For example, consider thefollowing type definition:

type SuperPositive:Number where value>5;

Assuming that there is a function named “CalcIt” that is declared toaccept a value of type “SuperPositive” as an operand, it is desirable toallow expressions like this in D:

CalcIt(20) CalcIt(42 + 99)and prohibit expressions like this:

CalcIt(−1) CalcIt(4)

In fact, D does exactly what is wanted for these four examples. This isbecause these expressions express their operands in terms of built-inoperators over constants. All of the information needed to determine thevalidity of the expressions is readily available the moment the D sourcetext for the expression is encountered at little cost.

However, if the expression draws upon dynamic sources of data and/oruser-defined functions, the type ascription operator is used to assertthat a value will conform to a given type.

To understand how the type ascription operator works with values, asecond function, “GetVowelCount,” is assumed that is declared to acceptan operand of type “Text” and return a value of type “Number” thatindicates the number of vowels in the operand.

Since it is unknown based on the declaration of “GetVowelCount” whetherits results will be greater than five or not, the following expressionis thus not a legal D expression:

CalcIt(GetVowelCount(someTextVariable))

The expression is not legal because the declared result type (Number) of“GetVowelCount” includes values that do not conform to the declaredoperand type of “CalcIt” (SuperPositive). This expression can bepresumed to have been written in error.

However, this expression can be rewritten to the following (legal)expression using the type ascription operator:

CalcIt((GetVowelCount(someTextVariable):SuperPositive))

By this expression, D is informed that there is enough understanding ofthe “GetVowelCount” function to know that a value that conforms to thetype “SuperPositive” will be obtained. In short, the programmer istelling D that he/she knows what D is doing.

However, if the programmer does not know, e.g., if the programmermisjudged how the “GetVowelCount” function works, a particularevaluation may result in a negative number. Because the “CalcIt”function was declared to only accept values that conform to“SuperPositive,” the system will ensure that all values passed to it aregreater than five. To ensure this constraint is never violated, thesystem may inject a dynamic constraint test that has a potential to failwhen evaluated. This failure will not occur when the D source text isfirst processed (as was the case with CalcIt(−1))—rather it will occurwhen the expression is actually evaluated.

In this regard, D implementations typically attempt to report anyconstraint violations before the first expression in a D document isevaluated. This is called static enforcement and implementations willmanifest this much like a syntax error. However, some constraints canonly be enforced against live data and therefore require dynamicenforcement.

In this respect, D make it easy for users to write down their intentionand put the burden on the D implementation to “make it work.”Optionally, to allow a particular D document to be used in diverseenvironments, a fully featured D implementation can be configurable toreject D documents that rely on dynamic enforcement for correctness inorder to reduce the performance and operational costs of dynamicconstraint violations.

For further background regard, D, a type constructor can be defined forspecifying collection types. The collection type constructor restrictsthe type and count of elements a collection may contain. All collectiontypes are restrictions over the intrinsic type “Collection,” e.g., allcollection values conform to the following expressions:

{ } in Collection { 1, false } in Collection ! (“Hello” in Collection)

The last example demonstrates that the collection types do not overlapwith the simple types. There is no value that conforms to both acollection type and a simple type.

A collection type constructor specifies both the type of element and theacceptable element count. The element count is typically specified usingone of the three operators:

T* - zero or more Ts T+ - one or more Ts T#m..n - between m and n Ts.

The collection type constructors can either use Kleene operators or bewritten longhand as a constraint over the intrinsic type Collection—thatis, the following type declarations describe the same set of collectionvalues:

type SomeNumbers : Number+; type TwoToFourNumbers : Number#2..4; typeThreeNumbers : Number#3; type FourOrMoreNumbers : Number#4..;

These types describe the same sets of values as these longhanddefinitions:

type SomeNumbers : Collection where value.Count >= 1         && item inNumber; type TwoToFourNumbers : Collection where value.Count >= 2        && value.Count <= 4         && item in Number; type ThreeNumbers: Collection where value.Count == 3         && item in Number; typeFourOrMoreNumbers : Collection where value.Count >= 4         && item inNumber;

Independent of which form is used to declare the types, the followingexpressions can be stated:

!({ } in TwoToFourNumbers) !({ “One”, “Two”, “Three” } inTwoToFourNumbers) { 1, 2, 3 } in TwoToFourNumbers { 1, 2, 3 } inThreeNumbers { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 } in FourOrMoreNumbers

The collection type constructors compose with the “where” operator,allowing the following type check to succeed:

{1,2} in (Number where value<3)*where value.Count % 2-0

It is noted that the inner “where” operator applies to elements of thecollection, and the outer “where” operator applies to the collectionitself.

Just as collection type constructors can be used to specify what kindsof collections are valid in a given context, the same can be done forentities using entity types.

In this regard, an entity type declares the expected members for a setof entity values. The members of an entity type can be declared eitheras fields or as calculated values. The value of a field is stored; thevalue of a calculated value is computed. Entity types are restrictionsover the Entity type, which is defined in the D standard library.

The following is a simple entity type:

type MyEntity:Language.Entity;

The type “MyEntity” does not declare any fields. In D, entity types areopen in that entity values that conform to the type may contain fieldswhose names are not declared in the type. Thus, the following type test:

{X=100,Y=200} in MyEntity

will evaluate to true, as the “MyEntity” type says nothing about fieldsnamed X and Y.

Entity types can contain one or more field declarations. At a minimum, afield declaration states the name of the expected field, e.g.:

type Point {X; Y;}

This type definition describes the set of entities that contain at leastfields named X and Y irrespective of the values of those fields, whichmeans that the following type tests evaluate to true:

{ X = 100, Y = 200 } in Point { X = 100, Y = 200, Z = 300 } in Point //more fields than expected OK ! ({ X = 100 } in Point)    // not enoughfields - not OK { X = true, Y = “Hello, world” } in Point

The last example demonstrates that the “Point” type does not constrainthe values of the X and Y fields, i.e., any value is allowed. A new typethat constrains the values of X and Y to numeric values is illustratedas follows:

type NumericPoint {  X : Number;  Y : Number where value > 0; }

It is noted that type ascription syntax is used to assert that the valueof the X and Y fields should conform to the type “Number.” With this inplace, the following expressions evaluate to true:

{ X = 100, Y = 200 } in NumericPoint { X = 100, Y = 200, Z = 300 } inNumericPoint ! ({ X = true, Y = “Hello, world” } in NumericPoint) ! ({X= 0, Y = 0 } in NumericPoint)

As was seen in the discussion of simple types, the name of the typeexists so that D declarations and expressions can refer to it. That iswhy both of the following type tests succeed:

{ X = 100, Y = 200 } in NumericPoint { X = 100, Y = 200 } in Pointeven though the definitions of NumericPoint and Point are independent.

Fields in D are named units of storage that hold values. D allows thedeveloper to initialize the value of a field as part of an entityinitializer. However, D does not specify any mechanism for changing thevalue of a field once it is initialized. In D, it is assumed that anychanges to field values happen outside the scope of D.

A field declaration can indicate that there is a default value for thefield. Field declarations that have a default value do not requireconformant entities to have a corresponding field specified (such fielddeclarations are sometimes called optional fields). For example, withrespect to the following type definition:

type Point3d {  X : Number;  Y : Number;  Z = −1 : Number; // defaultvalue of negative one }Since the Z field has a default value, the following type test willsucceed:

{X=100, Y=200} in Point3d

Moreover, if a type ascription operator is applied to the value asfollows:

{X=100, Y=200}:Point3d)

then the Z field can be accessed as follows:

({X=100, Y=200}: Point3d).Z

in which case this expression will yield the value −1.

In another non-limiting aspect, if a field declaration does not have acorresponding default value, conformant entities must specify a valuefor that field. Default values are typically written down using theexplicit syntax shown for the Z field of “Point3d.” If the type of afield is either nullable or a zero-to-many collection, then there is animplicit default value for the declaring field of null for optional and{} for the collection.

For example, considering the following type:

type PointND {  X : Number;  Y : Number;  Z : Number?;   // Z isoptional  BeyondZ : Number*; // BeyondZ is optional too }

Then, again, the following type test will succeed:

{X=100, Y=200} in PointND

and ascribing the “PointND” to the value yields these defaults:

({ X = 100, Y = 200 } : PointND).Z == null ({ X = 100, Y = 200 } :PointND).BeyondZ == { }

The choice of using a zero-to-one collection vs. an explicit defaultvalue to model optional fields typically comes down to one of style.

Calculated values are named expressions whose values are calculatedrather than stored. An example of a type that declares such a calculatedvalue is:

type PointPlus {  X : Number;  Y : Number; // a calculated value IsHigh( ) : Logical { Y > 0; } }Note that unlike field declarations, which end in a semicolon,calculated value declarations end with the expression surrounded bybraces.

Like field declarations, a calculated value declaration may omit thetype ascription, like this example:

type PointPlus {  X : Number;  Y : Number; // a calculated value with notype ascription  InMagicQuadrant( ) { IsHigh && X > 0; }  IsHigh( ) :Logical { Y > 0; } }

In another non-limiting aspect, when no type is explicitly ascribed to acalculated value, D can infer the type automatically based on thedeclared result type of the underlying expression. In this example,because the logical and operator used in the expression was declared asreturning a “Logical,” the “InMagicQuadrant” calculated value also isascribed to yield a “Logical” value.

The two calculated values defined and used above did not require anyadditional information to calculate their results other than the entityvalue itself. A calculated value may optionally declare a list of namedparameters whose actual values must be specified when using thecalculated value in an expression. The following is an example of acalculated value that requires parameters:

type PointPlus {  X : Number;  Y : Number;  // a calculated value thatrequires a parameter  WithinBounds(radius : Number) : Logical {   X *X + Y * Y <= radius * radius;  }  InMagicQuadrant( ) { IsHigh && X > 0;}  IsHigh( ) : Logical { Y > 0; } }

To use this calculated value in an expression, one provides values forthe two parameters as follows:

({X=100, Y=200}: PointPlus).WithinBounds(50)

When calculating the value of “WithinBounds,” D binds the value 50 tothe symbol radius, which causes the “WithinBounds” calculated value toevaluate to false.

It is noted with D that both calculated values and default values forfields are part of the type definition, not part of the values thatconform to the type. For example, considering these three typedefinitions:

type Point {  X : Number;  Y : Number; } type RichPoint {  X : Number; Y : Number;  Z = −1 : Number;  IsHigh( ) : Logical { X < Y; } } typeWeirdPoint {  X : Number;  Y : Number;  Z = 42 : Number;  IsHigh( ) :Logical { false; } }

Since RichPoint and WeirdPoint only have two required fields (X and Y),the following can be stated:

{ X=1, Y=2 } in RichPoint { X=1, Y=2 } in WeirdPoint

However, the “IsHigh” calculated value is only available when one ofthese two types is ascribed to the entity value:

({ X=1, Y=2 } : RichPoint).IsHigh == true ({ X=1, Y=2 } :WeirdPoint).IsHigh == false

Because the calculated value is purely part of the type and not thevalue, when the ascription is chained, such as follows:

(({X=1, Y=2}:RichPoint):WeirdPoint).IsHigh==false then, the outer-mostascription determines which function is called.

A similar principle is at play with respect to how default values work.It is again noted the default value is part of the type, not the entityvalue. Thus, when the following expression is written:

({X=1, Y=2}:RichPoint).Z==−1

the underlying entity value still only contains two field values (1 and2 for X and Y, respectively). In this regard, where default valuesdiffer from calculated values, ascriptions are chained. For example,considering the following expression:

(({X=1, Y=2}:RichPoint):WeirdPoint).Z==−1

Since the “RichPoint” ascription is applied first, the resultant entityhas a field named Z having a value of −1; however, there is no storageallocated for the value, i.e., it is part of the type's interpretationof the value. Accordingly, when the “WeirdPoint” ascription is applied,it is applied to the result of the first ascription, which does have afield named Z, so that value is used to specify the value for Z. Thedefault value specified by “WeirdPoint” is thus not needed.

Like all types, a constraint may be applied to an entity type using the“where” operator. Consider the following D type definition:

type HighPoint {  X : Number;  Y : Number; } where X < Y;

In this example, all values that conform to the type “HighPoint” areguaranteed to have an X value that is less than the Y value. That meansthat the following expressions:

{ X = 100, Y = 200 } in HighPoint ! ({ X = 300, Y = 200 } in HighPoint)both evaluate to true.

Moreover, with respect to the following type definitions:

type Point {  X : Number;  Y : Number; } type Visual {  Opacity :Number; } type VisualPoint {  DotSize : Number; } where value in Point&& value in Visual;the third type, “VisualPoint,” names the set of entity values that haveat least the numeric fields X, Y, Opacity, and DotSize.

Since it is a common desire to factor member declarations into smallerpieces that can be composed, D also provides explicit syntax support forfactoring. For instance, the “VisualPoint” type definition can berewritten using that syntax:

type VisualPoint : Point, Visual {  DotSize : Number; }

To be clear, this is shorthand for the long-hand definition above thatused a constraint expression. Furthermore, both this shorthanddefinition and long-hand definition are equivalent to this evenlonger-hand definition:

type VisualPoint = {  X : Number;  Y : Number;  Opacity : Number; DotSize : Number; }

Again, the names of the types are just ways to refer to types—the valuesthemselves have no record of the type names used to describe them.

D can also extend LINQ query comprehensions with several features tomake authoring simple queries more concise. The keywords, “where” and“select” are available as binary infix operators. Also, indexers areautomatically added to strongly typed collections. These features allowcommon queries to be authored more compactly as illustrated below.

As an example of where as an infix operator, the following queryextracts people under 30 from a defined collection of “People”:

from p in People where p.Age = 30 select p

An equivalent query can be written:

People where value.Age =30

The “where” operator takes a collection on the left and a Booleanexpression on the right. The “where” operator introduces a keywordidentifier value in to the scope of the Boolean expression that is boundto each member of the collection. The resulting collection contains themembers for which the expression is true. Thus, the expression:

Collection where Expression

is equivalent to:

from value in Collection where Expression select value

The D compiler adds indexer members on collections with strongly typedelements. For the collection “People,” for instance, the compiler mightadd indexers for “First(Text),” “Last(Text),” and “Age(Number).”

Accordingly, the statement:

Collection.Field (Expression)

is equivalent to:

from value in Collection where Field == Expression select value

“Select” is also available as an infix operator. With respect to thefollowing simple query:

from p in People select p.First + p.Lastthe “select” expression is computed over each member of the collectionand returns the result. Using the infix “select” the query can bewritten equivalently as:

People select value.First+value.Last

The “select” operator takes a collection on the left and an arbitraryexpression on the right. As with “where,” “select” introduces thekeyword identifier value that ranges over each element in thecollection. The “select” operator maps the expression over each elementin the collection and returns the result. For another example, thestatement:

Collection select Expression

is equivalent to the following:

from value in Collection select Expression

A trivial use of the “select” operator is to extract a single field:

People select value.First

The compiler adds accessors to the collection so single fields can beextracted directly as “People.First” and “People.Last.”

To write a legal D document, all source text appears in the context of amodule definition. A module defines a top-level namespace for any typenames that are defined. A module also defines a scope for definingextents that will store actual values, as well as calculated values.

The following is a simple example of a module definition:

module Geometry {  // declare a type  type Point {   X : Integer; Y :Integer;  }  // declare some extents  Points : Point*;  Origin : Point; // declare a calculated value  TotalPointCount { Points.Count + 1; } }

In this example, the module defines one type named “Geometry.Point.”This type describes what point values will look like, but does notdefine any locations where those values can be stored.

This example also includes two module-scoped fields (Points and Origin).Module-scoped field declarations are identical in syntax to those usedin entity types. However, fields declared in an entity type simply namethe potential for storage once an extent has been determined; incontrast, fields declared at module-scope name actual storage that mustbe mapped by an implementation in order to load and interpret themodule.

In addition, modules can refer to declarations in other modules by usingan import directive to name the module containing the referenceddeclarations. For a declaration to be referenced by other modules, thedeclaration is explicitly exported using an export directive.

For example, considering the following module:

module MyModule {  import HerModule; // declares HerType  exportMyType1;  export MyExtent1;  type MyType1 : Logical*;  type MyType2 :HerType;  MyExtent1 : Number*;  MyExtent2 : HerType; }It is noted that only “MyType1” and “MyExtent1” are visible to othermodules, which makes the following definition of “HerModule” legal:

module HerModule {  import MyModule; // declares MyType1 and MyExtent1 export HerType;  type HerType : Text where value.Count < 100;  typePrivate : Number where !(value in MyExtent1);  SomeStorage : MyType1; }As this example shows, modules may have circular dependencies.

The types of the D language are divided into two main categories:intrinsic types and derived types. An intrinsic type is a type thatcannot be defined using D language constructs but rather is definedentirely in the D language specification. An intrinsic type may name atmost one intrinsic type as its super-type as part of its specification.Values are an instance of exactly one intrinsic type, and conform to thespecification of that one intrinsic type and all of its super types.

A derived type is a type whose definition is constructed in D sourcetext using the type constructors that are provided in the language. Aderived type is defined as a constraint over another type, which createsan explicit subtyping relationship. Values conform to any number ofderived types simply by virtue of satisfying the derived type'sconstraint. There is no a priori affiliation between a value and aderived type—rather a given value that conforms to a derived type'sconstraint may be interpreted as that type at will.

D offers a broad range of options in defining types. Any expressionwhich returns a collection can be declared as a type. The typepredicates for entities and collections are expressions and fit thisform. A type declaration may explicitly enumerate its members or becomposed of other types.

Another distinction is between a structurally typed language, like D,and a nominally typed language. A type in D is a specification for a setof values. Two types are the same if the exact same collection of valuesconforms to both regardless of the name of the types. It is not requiredthat a type be named to be used. A type expression is allowed wherever atype reference is required. Types in D are simply expressions thatreturn collections.

If every value that conforms to type A also conforms to type B, then Ais a subtype of B (and B is a super-type of A). Subtyping is transitive,that is, if A is a subtype of B and B is a subtype of C, then A is asubtype of C (and C is a super-type of A). Subtyping is reflexive, thatis, A is a (vacuous) subtype of A (and A is a super-type of A).

Types are considered collections of all values that satisfy the typepredicate. For that reason, any operation on a collection can be appliedto a type and a type can be manipulated with expressions like any othercollection value.

D provides two primary means for values to come into existence:calculated values and stored values (a.k.a. fields). Calculated andstored values may occur with both module and entity declarations and arescoped by their container. A computed value is derived from evaluatingan expression that is typically defined as part of D source text. Incontrast, a field stores a value and the contents of the field maychange over time.

Exemplary Networked and Distributed Environments

One of ordinary skill in the art can appreciate that the variousembodiments for semantic subtyping with transformation to first orderlogic described herein can be implemented in connection with anycomputer or other client or server device, which can be deployed as partof a computer network or in a distributed computing environment, and canbe connected to any kind of data store. In this regard, the variousembodiments described herein can be implemented in any computer systemor environment having any number of memory or storage units, and anynumber of applications and processes occurring across any number ofstorage units. This includes, but is not limited to, an environment withserver computers and client computers deployed in a network environmentor a distributed computing environment, having remote or local storage.

Distributed computing provides sharing of computer resources andservices by communicative exchange among computing devices and systems.These resources and services include the exchange of information, cachestorage and disk storage for objects, such as files. These resources andservices also include the sharing of processing power across multipleprocessing units for load balancing, expansion of resources,specialization of processing, and the like. Distributed computing takesadvantage of network connectivity, allowing clients to leverage theircollective power to benefit the entire enterprise. In this regard, avariety of devices may have applications, objects or resources that maycooperate to perform one or more aspects of any of the variousembodiments of the subject disclosure.

FIG. 22 provides a schematic diagram of an exemplary networked ordistributed computing environment. The distributed computing environmentcomprises computing objects 2210, 2212, etc. and computing objects ordevices 2220, 2222, 2224, 2226, 2228, etc., which may include programs,methods, data stores, programmable logic, etc., as represented byapplications 2230, 2232, 2234, 2236, 2238. It can be appreciated thatobjects 2210, 2212, etc. and computing objects or devices 2220, 2222,2224, 2226, 2228, etc. may comprise different devices, such as PDAs,audio/video devices, mobile phones, MP3 players, personal computers,laptops, etc.

Each object 2210, 2212, etc. and computing objects or devices 2220,2222, 2224, 2226, 2228, etc. can communicate with one or more otherobjects 2210, 2212, etc. and computing objects or devices 2220, 2222,2224, 2226, 2228, etc. by way of the communications network 2240, eitherdirectly or indirectly. Even though illustrated as a single element inFIG. 22, network 2240 may comprise other computing objects and computingdevices that provide services to the system of FIG. 22, and/or mayrepresent multiple interconnected networks, which are not shown. Eachobject 2210, 2212, etc. or 2220, 2222, 2224, 2226, 2228, etc. can alsocontain an application, such as applications 2230, 2232, 2234, 2236,2238, that might make use of an API, or other object, software, firmwareand/or hardware, suitable for communication with, processing for, orimplementation of the semantic subtyping with transformation to firstorder logic provided in accordance with various embodiments of thesubject disclosure.

There are a variety of systems, components, and network configurationsthat support distributed computing environments. For example, computingsystems can be connected together by wired or wireless systems, by localnetworks or widely distributed networks. Currently, many networks arecoupled to the Internet, which provides an infrastructure for widelydistributed computing and encompasses many different networks, thoughany network infrastructure can be used for exemplary communications madeincident to the semantic subtyping with transformation to first orderlogic as described in various embodiments.

Thus, a host of network topologies and network infrastructures, such asclient/server, peer-to-peer, or hybrid architectures, can be utilized.The “client” is a member of a class or group that uses the services ofanother class or group to which it is not related. A client can be aprocess, i.e., roughly a set of instructions or tasks, that requests aservice provided by another program or process. The client processutilizes the requested service without having to “know” any workingdetails about the other program or the service itself.

In a client/server architecture, particularly a networked system, aclient is usually a computer that accesses shared network resourcesprovided by another computer, e.g., a server. In the illustration ofFIG. 22, as a non-limiting example, computers 2220, 2222, 2224, 2226,2228, etc. can be thought of as clients and computers 2210, 2212, etc.can be thought of as servers where servers 2210, 2212, etc. provide dataservices, such as receiving data from client computers 2220, 2222, 2224,2226, 2228, etc., storing of data, processing of data, transmitting datato client computers 2220, 2222, 2224, 2226, 2228, etc., although anycomputer can be considered a client, a server, or both, depending on thecircumstances. Any of these computing devices may be processing data,encoding data, querying data or requesting services or tasks that mayimplicate the semantic subtyping with transformation to first orderlogic as described herein for one or more embodiments.

A server is typically a remote computer system accessible over a remoteor local network, such as the Internet or wireless networkinfrastructures. The client process may be active in a first computersystem, and the server process may be active in a second computersystem, communicating with one another over a communications medium,thus providing distributed functionality and allowing multiple clientsto take advantage of the information-gathering capabilities of theserver. Any software objects utilized pursuant to the semantic subtypingwith transformation to first order logic can be provided standalone, ordistributed across multiple computing devices or objects.

In a network environment in which the communications network/bus 2240 isthe Internet, for example, the servers 2210, 2212, etc. can be Webservers with which the clients 2220, 2222, 2224, 2226, 2228, etc.communicate via any of a number of known protocols, such as thehypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Servers 2210, 2212, etc. may alsoserve as clients 2220, 2222, 2224, 2226, 2228, etc., as may becharacteristic of a distributed computing environment.

Exemplary Computing Device

As mentioned, advantageously, the techniques described herein can beapplied to any device where it is desirable to query large amounts ofdata quickly. It should be understood, therefore, that handheld,portable and other computing devices and computing objects of all kindsare contemplated for use in connection with the various embodiments,i.e., anywhere that a device may wish to scan or process huge amounts ofdata for fast and efficient results. Accordingly, the below generalpurpose remote computer described below in FIG. 24 is but one example ofa computing device.

Although not required, embodiments can partly be implemented via anoperating system, for use by a developer of services for a device orobject, and/or included within application software that operates toperform one or more functional aspects of the various embodimentsdescribed herein. Software may be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by one or more computers, such as client workstations, serversor other devices. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that computersystems have a variety of configurations and protocols that can be usedto communicate data, and thus, no particular configuration or protocolshould be considered limiting.

FIG. 23 thus illustrates an example of a suitable computing systemenvironment 2300 in which one or aspects of the embodiments describedherein can be implemented, although as made clear above, the computingsystem environment 2300 is only one example of a suitable computingenvironment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to scope ofuse or functionality. Neither should the computing environment 2300 beinterpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any oneor combination of components illustrated in the exemplary operatingenvironment 2300.

With reference to FIG. 23, an exemplary remote device for implementingone or more embodiments includes a general purpose computing device inthe form of a computer 2310. Components of computer 2310 may include,but are not limited to, a processing unit 2320, a system memory 2330,and a system bus 2322 that couples various system components includingthe system memory to the processing unit 2320.

Computer 2310 typically includes a variety of computer readable mediaand can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 2310.The system memory 2330 may include computer storage media in the form ofvolatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) and/orrandom access memory (RAM). By way of example, and not limitation,memory 2330 may also include an operating system, application programs,other program modules, and program data.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 2310 throughinput devices 2340. A monitor or other type of display device is alsoconnected to the system bus 2322 via an interface, such as outputinterface 2350. In addition to a monitor, computers can also includeother peripheral output devices such as speakers and a printer, whichmay be connected through output interface 2350.

The computer 2310 may operate in a networked or distributed environmentusing logical connections to one or more other remote computers, such asremote computer 2370. The remote computer 2370 may be a personalcomputer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or othercommon network node, or any other remote media consumption ortransmission device, and may include any or all of the elementsdescribed above relative to the computer 2310. The logical connectionsdepicted in FIG. 23 include a network 2372, such local area network(LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), but may also include othernetworks/buses. Such networking environments are commonplace in homes,offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet.

As mentioned above, while exemplary embodiments have been described inconnection with various computing devices and network architectures, theunderlying concepts may be applied to any network system and anycomputing device or system in which it is desirable to compress largescale data or process queries over large scale data.

Also, there are multiple ways to implement the same or similarfunctionality, e.g., an appropriate API, tool kit, driver code,operating system, control, standalone or downloadable software object,etc. which enables applications and services to use the efficientencoding and querying techniques. Thus, embodiments herein arecontemplated from the standpoint of an API (or other software object),as well as from a software or hardware object that provides semanticsubtyping with transformation to first order logic. Thus, variousembodiments described herein can have aspects that are wholly inhardware, partly in hardware and partly in software, as well as insoftware.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example,instance, or illustration. For the avoidance of doubt, the subjectmatter disclosed herein is not limited by such examples. In addition,any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarilyto be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects ordesigns, nor is it meant to preclude equivalent exemplary structures andtechniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Furthermore, tothe extent that the terms “includes,” “has,” “contains,” and othersimilar words are used in either the detailed description or the claims,for the avoidance of doubt, such terms are intended to be inclusive in amanner similar to the term “comprising” as an open transition wordwithout precluding any additional or other elements.

As mentioned, the various techniques described herein may be implementedin connection with hardware or software or, where appropriate, with acombination of both. As used herein, the terms “component,” “system” andthe like are likewise intended to refer to a computer-related entity,either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, orsoftware in execution. For example, a component may be, but is notlimited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, anobject, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or acomputer. By way of illustration, both an application running oncomputer and the computer can be a component. One or more components mayreside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component maybe localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers.

The aforementioned systems have been described with respect tointeraction between several components. It can be appreciated that suchsystems and components can include those components or specifiedsub-components, some of the specified components or sub-components,and/or additional components, and according to various permutations andcombinations of the foregoing. Sub-components can also be implemented ascomponents communicatively coupled to other components rather thanincluded within parent components (hierarchical). Additionally, itshould be noted that one or more components may be combined into asingle component providing aggregate functionality or divided intoseveral separate sub-components, and that any one or more middle layers,such as a management layer, may be provided to communicatively couple tosuch sub-components in order to provide integrated functionality. Anycomponents described herein may also interact with one or more othercomponents not specifically described herein but generally known bythose of skill in the art.

In view of the exemplary systems described supra, methodologies that maybe implemented in accordance with the described subject matter will bebetter appreciated with reference to the flowcharts of the variousfigures. While for purposes of simplicity of explanation, themethodologies are shown and described as a series of blocks, it is to beunderstood and appreciated that the claimed subject matter is notlimited by the order of the blocks, as some blocks may occur indifferent orders and/or concurrently with other blocks from what isdepicted and described herein. Where non-sequential, or branched, flowis illustrated via flowchart, it can be appreciated that various otherbranches, flow paths, and orders of the blocks, may be implemented whichachieve the same or a similar result. Moreover, not all illustratedblocks may be required to implement the methodologies describedhereinafter.

In addition to the various embodiments described herein, it is to beunderstood that other similar embodiments can be used or modificationsand additions can be made to the described embodiment(s) for performingthe same or equivalent function of the corresponding embodiment(s)without deviating therefrom. Still further, multiple processing chips ormultiple devices can share the performance of one or more functionsdescribed herein, and similarly, storage can be effected across aplurality of devices. Accordingly, the invention should not be limitedto any single embodiment, but rather should be construed in breadth,spirit and scope in accordance with the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for validating at least a portion of adeclarative program based on a background theory for a programminglanguage having a type system that supports type test and refinement,including: for a given environment, translating, by a computing device,a programming construct of the declarative program to at least one firstorder logic formula construct based on a semantic analysis; determining,by the computing device, a validity of the at least one first orderlogic formula construct based on an analysis of the at least one firstorder logic formula construct; and determining, by the computing device,whether a first type of the programming construct is a valid subtype ofa second type of the programming construct based on the validitydetermination, including: forming, for each type T, a formula F[T](x)that is true if and only if x is a value of type T; and checking whethera type S is a subtype of the type T through use of a formula of the form(∀x. F[S](x)=

F[T](x)).
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the validityincludes inputting the at least one first order logic formula constructto at least one general purpose prover and receiving output from the atleast one general purpose prover based on the at least one first orderlogic formula construct.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein thedetermining of whether the first type is a subtype of the second type isbased on the output from the at least one general purpose prover.
 4. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the receiving includes receiving the outputin the form of an answer indicating one of valid, invalid or unknown. 5.The method of claim 2, wherein the inputting includes inputting the atleast one first order logic formula construct to at least two generalpurpose provers and the determining is based on the output of the atleast two general purpose provers.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein theinputting includes storing the at least one first order logic formulaconstruct as a text file and submitting the text file to the generalpurpose prover.
 7. The method of claim 2, wherein the inputting of theat least one first order logic formula construct to at least one generalpurpose prover includes inputting the at least one first order logicformula construct to at least one satisfiability modulo theories (SMT)prover.
 8. The method of claim 2, wherein the inputting of the at leastone first order logic formula construct to at least one general purposeprover includes inputting the at least one first order logic formulaconstruct in pieces and determining the validity from an aggregateoutput based on the pieces.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein thedetermining includes statically determining whether the first type ofthe programming construct is a valid subtype of the second type prior toexecuting the declarative program.
 10. A volatile or non-volatilecomputer readable memory having computer executable instructions forcarrying out the method of claim 1 stored thereon.
 11. A computersystem, including: a system memory and a processor that are respectivelyconfigured to store and execute instructions, including instructionsorganized into: at least one declarative code module comprising computerexecutable instructions representative of declarative code according toa declarative programming model implementing a type system supportingconstraint-based refinement type statements and type test statements inthe refinement type statements, the at least one declarative code moduleincluding a plurality of programming constructs; and a declarative codeinterpretation module for interpreting and verifying validity of theplurality of constructs according to rules defined based on the typesystem, wherein the declarative code interpretation module transformsexpressions including subtyping relationships to first order logic termsand formulas and invokes at least one prover to test a validity of thefirst order logic terms and formulas to inform whether the subtypingrelationships are valid wherein, for a type T, the declarative codeinterpretation module forms a formula F[T](x) that holds if and only ifx is a value of type T, and wherein the declarative code interpretationmodule checks whether a type S is a subtype of the type T by generatinga formula of the form (∀x. F[S](x)=

F[T](x)).
 12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the declarativecode interpretation module invokes a first-order solver to determinewhether the formula is valid, given a background theory based on thetype system.
 13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein thedeclarative code interpretation module invokes at least onesatisfiability modulo theories (SMT) prover to test the validity of thefirst order logic terms and formulas.
 14. A method for executingdeclarative code by at least one processor of a computing device,including: for execution by the computing device, receiving, by thecomputing device, a declarative program specified according to a typesystem that supports, within a programming construct of the declarativeprogram, typing by refinement and evaluation of type membership; anddetermining, by the computing device, the validity of subtypingrelationships represented in the declarative program by; transformingthe expressions to first order or higher order logic expressions; andchecking the validity of the first order or higher order logicexpressions with at least one general purpose prover, including: for atype T, forming a formula F[T](x) that holds if and only if x is a valueof type T; and checking whether a type S is a subtype of the type T byevaluating a formula of the form (∀x. F[S](x)=

F[T](x)).
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the transforming consistsof transforming the expressions to first order expressions and checkingthe validity of the first order logic expressions with at least onesatisfiability modulo theories (SMT) prover.
 16. The method of claim 14,wherein the determining includes submitting the first order logicexpressions to the general purpose prover in at least two batches andreceiving at least two answers from the general purpose provercorresponding to the at least two batches.
 17. The method of claim 14,wherein the transforming consists of transforming the expressions tohigher than first order logic expressions and checking the validity ofthe higher order logic expressions with at least one general purposeprover.
 18. The method of claim 14, wherein checking the validity of thefirst order or higher order logic expressions includes: inputting thefirst order or higher order logic expressions into at least two generalpurpose provers; and determining the validity of the first order orhigher order logic expressions based on output from the at least twogeneral purpose provers.
 19. A volatile or non-volatile computerreadable memory having computer executable instructions for carrying outthe method of claim 14 stored thereon.
 20. The computer system of claim11, wherein the declarative code interpretation module further invokesat least a second prover to test a validity of the first order logicterms and formulas to determine whether the subtyping relationships arevalid.